South Korea, officially the Republic of Korea, competed at the 2016 Summer Olympics in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, from 5 to 21 August 2016. This was the nation's seventeenth appearance at the Olympics. The Korean Olympic Committee sent the nation's smallest ever delegation to the Games in Olympic history since 1984. A total of 205 athletes, 103 men and 101 women, competed in 24 sports.
Medalists
The following South Korean competitors won medals at the Games. In the by discipline sections below, medalists' names are bolded.
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Competitors
The Korean Olympic Committee (KOC) selected a team of 204 athletes, 103 men and 101 women, to compete in 22 sports; it was the nation's smallest team sent to the Olympics since 1984, just six athletes relatively short of its size. South Korea did not qualify athletes in basketball, rugby sevens, tennis, and triathlon.
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The following is the list of number of competitors participating in the Games. Note that reserves in fencing, field hockey, football, and handball are not counted as athletes:
Archery
South Korean archers qualified each for the men's and women's events after having secured a top eight finish in their respective team recurves at the 2015 World Archery Championships in Copenhagen, Denmark.
With a top eight placement at the Worlds, the spots for the three men and three women from South Korea will be determined in two national selection meets by April 2016. The South Korean archery team, led by London 2012 Olympic champion Ki Bo-bae, was announced on April 19, 2016. On August 5, 2016, Kim Woo-jin set a world record by scoring 700 out of a possible 720 in the seeding round of the men's individual recurve.
Men
Women
Athletics
South Korean athletes have achieved qualifying standards in the following event (up to a maximum of 3 athletes in each event):
Track & road events
Men
Women
Field events
Badminton
South Korea qualified a total of fourteen badminton players for each of the following events into the Olympic tournament based on the BWF World Rankings as of 5 May 2016: two entries each in the men's and women's singles, as well as the men's, women's doubles, and one in the mixed doubles.
Men
Women
Mixed
Boxing
South Korea entered one boxer to compete in the men's bantamweight division into the Olympic competition. Ham Sang-myeong received a spare Olympic berth, as the next highest-ranked boxer, not yet qualified, in the AIBA Pro Boxing (APB) rankings, as France's top boxer Khedafi Djelkhir decided to withdraw from the Games and thereby announce his retirement from the sport.
Canoeing
Sprint
South Korea qualified a single boat in men's K-2 200 m for the Games at the 2015 Asian Canoe Sprint Championships in Palembang, Indonesia, as the quota spot had been passed to the highest finisher not yet qualified.
Qualification Legend: FA = Qualify to final (medal); FB = Qualify to final B (non-medal)
Cycling
Road
South Korean riders qualified for a maximum of three quota places in the men's Olympic road race by virtue of their top 4 national ranking in the 2015 UCI Asia Tour. One female rider was added to the South Korean squad to compete in the women's Olympic road race by finishing first at the 2016 Asian Championships.
Track
Following the completion of the 2016 UCI Track Cycling World Championships, South Korean riders have accumulated spots in the men's team sprint and men's omnium. As a result of their place in the men's team sprint, South Korea assured its right to enter two riders in both men's sprint and men's keirin. Although South Korea failed to win a quota place in the women's team sprint, they managed to claim a single place in the women's keirin, by virtue of their final individual UCI Olympic rankings in that event.
Sprint
Team sprint
Keirin
Omnium
Diving
South Korean divers qualified for the following individual and synchronized team spots at the 2016 Olympic Games through the World Championships and the FINA World Cup series.
Equestrian
South Korea entered one dressage rider into the Olympic equestrian competition by virtue of a top national finish from Asia and Oceania at the FEI qualification event in Perl, Germany.